


When Everything (et al) Happens

by AfanofManyStuffs, ApocalypticNuisance



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: AU, Crack, F/M, Het, Modern world, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-28 23:17:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6349612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AfanofManyStuffs/pseuds/AfanofManyStuffs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApocalypticNuisance/pseuds/ApocalypticNuisance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demon mates are found at the first touch. Mey-Rin just happens to be a demon very good at hiding. Watch what happens when she finds that Claude is her mate, old enemies come out of the past for vengeance, and they start to plot the world ending. </p><p>An adapted roleplay between ApocalypticNuisance and AfanofManyStuffs, modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. When They Meet

** When Everything (et al) Happens **

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Chapter 1

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Editing done by AfanofManyStuffs.

 

Please note that a single space is a new paragraph; a double space is a change of Point-of-View (POV) when not suitable to put a line break ( **{¨§º~º§¨}** ), which denotes a change of scene.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Mei-Rin had been through a long day. She had been working hard at the Phantomhive manor and had messed up quite a bit. Although the messes she made weren't that big of a difference from what she usually did, Sebastian had been giving her more displeased looks lately. She couldn't tell if it was because he was disappointed in her work, or if he thought that she was more incompetent than usual. Maybe Ciel was going to fire her? She couldn't be _that_ much of a failure, could she?

 

The thought made her a bit upset. Maybe she wasn't fit to be a Phantomhive maid. But there was still time to try and prove her worth! Like shopping; that was a simple thing Sebastian had sent her out to do that she couldn't possibly ruin. She stepped into the road side London market and made her way around, buying everything that was on the list Sebastian had given her.

 

Mei-Rin was still lost in thought, so she barely noticed when she ran into something. No, it was a someone? She gasped as she ran into the person, sending them both falling onto the ground, herself on her knees and the other person on his backside. Her glasses went flying onto the ground, and she looked up at the person with wide eyes. He looked familiar. Black hair, glasses, golden eyes that pierced into your soul....wasn't this man the Trancy butler?

 

"Oh my goodness I am so sorry!! A-Are you alright??"

 

The demon currently going by the name of Claude Faustus stood- or rather, sat- stupid, wide eyed and in shock at the petite redhead with such beautiful brown eyes who had walked into him. The petite redhead who _just happened to be his mate_. He recovered himself.

"Ah, no, miss, the fault was entirely mine. Do you need help around the market?"

 

 

Mei-Rin had noticed the strange wide-eyed look Claude had given her as they sat there on the ground in shock. She had no idea why he was looking at her that way, like he had just had some kind of horrifying revelation.

 

"Huh? O-oh no, no it's alright! I, um.....I can do this myself, I'm sure you're plenty busy with something of your own. You wouldn't be here if you weren’t." She grabbed her glasses and stuck them on her face once again, letting the thick lenses cover up her gorgeous eyes. She grabbed her basket and stood up, dusting her maids uniform dress off and looking down at the male.

 

Mei-Rin grabbed an orange that had fallen from the man's own basket and handed it to him after he had stood up, "I think this is yours?"

 

 

He took the orange, berating himself for doing something as improper as asking to accompany her when they had just met. She surely thought bad of him now.

 

"Thank you, Ms..." he trailed off, silently asking for her name.

 

 

"O-oh!" she realized she hadn't told him her name, but he hadn't said his name yet either. "Mei-Rin. M-my name is Mei-Rin" she greeted him with that dorky little smile of hers. She was trying her best not to seem so nervous, because the man was rather buff and looked a little too much like Sebastian. Her internal gears were turning, telling her to be terrified of him. Or at least telling her to pretend to be.

 

 

"Mei-Rin, then." He smiled at her before introducing himself. "My name is Claude Faustus, head butler to the Trancy estate. I hope I haven’t damaged you.” He now had no direction to go but away from her, when a brilliant idea struck him. "Could you give me your phone number, Ms. Mei-Rin? I heard through the Servants Network website that you work for the Phantomhives, who are traditionally close to the Trancy nobility. I think it would bring more convenience to both of our masters to have the servants already integrated with each other to bring them smoother service." He hoped fervently that she would say yes.

 

 

Mei-Rin blinked. So she was right, the man _was_ the Trancy butler. She pondered the idea for a bit, tilting her head while she listened before responding.

 

"Well...I suppose that's a good idea..." she grabbed the notebook in her pocket that had the shopping list on it and flipped to a clean page, writing down her cell phone's number before ripping the page out of the notebook and handing it to Claude with a small smile. "Here you are, Mr. Faustus!"

 

 

He took the paper in his hand, sorely tempted to sniff it for the scent imprinted on it. He resisted, instead neatly folding it and putting it into the inner pocket of his semi-formal coat.

 

"Thank you. Now, if you'll give me that paper and pen, I will give you mine." Cars swished by next to the sidewalk where they were; the open air flea market on the abandoned parking lot next to them. As she was fishing the pad of paper out of her pocket again, he saw one of the noisy, oily, smelly machines (Humans would refuse to use them at all if they had his senses) weaving in the traffic. Another horrible human driver. Mei-Rin smiled softly and handed the paper and pen to Claude, standing with the basket behind her back as she let him write down what he needed to. As he watched it’s progression toward them from the corner of his eye, he made a horrible realization through logic- the next available space between the traffic for the car was a space too narrow to fit it. It would end up crashing on Mei-Rin, who had no idea about the car that was speeding toward her.

 

As soon as the thought completed, the events took place exactly as he calculated. The car swerved once again, the angle too sharp for the space. To prevent the most horrible outcome, he took her wrist rather abruptly, and pulled her into him, making her give out a startled squeal as she was. A few milliseconds later, the car crashed in front them, and into a light pole- directly where Mei-Rin would have been standing.

 

 

Mei-Rin gasped and immediately blushed a bright tomato red.

 

"O-oh!" She noticed the car and winced, realizing that she could have been crushed and dead like the pole by this point if it wasn't for Claude. People rushed around; some calling emergency responders, others making sure Mei-Rin and Claude were alright. The redhead slowly pulled herself away from Claude once she collected herself. "I....th-thank you, you saved my life..." she whispered, barely able to find her voice.

 

 

Claude let a gentlemanly smile stretch his face and said what society dictated.

 

"You are most welcome. I would have done the same for anybody." He leaned closer to her then, as an attempt to make her flustered by him, "But you especially," he said in a low tone, as panicking people rushed about. He could hear sirens on the way. It simply would not do to be brought in by the authorities- it could potentially cause trouble for their masters, and that was the last thing any servant wanted.

 

Also, it would be a headache for him. This in mind, he waved off the people nearby, who were trying to get them to sit down. His mate was quite embarrassed and flustered- this wouldn't do at all, to have her in such discomfort from other people. He put on a concerned face. "Are you alright?" he asked for the second time today, even though he knew she was unharmed through his acute sense of smell. She answered in the form of a shaky yes. "I think the shopping is ruined here for today. Did you get everything you needed? I apologize if I sound presumptuous, but I can drive you if you need, either to another market or the Phantomhive manor."

 

 

Mei-Rin's shaking seemed to calm down after what seemed like forever. She glances back at the car, staring at the wreckage before realizing that the person in the car was someone she knew. He was a fellow assassin that she knew from a few years back before she left to work at the Phantomhive manor.

 

Strange, he hadn't purposely crashed his car, there appeared to be a bullet wound in his head.....Oh great, this was going to take up her weekend, wasn't it? The human female looked up at Claude with a shy smile.

 

"No, no, that's perfectly fine, but my master's manor is walking distance from here! Uh… thank you for the offer though, Mr. Faustus. I-I can make it back myself..." she glanced at the car once more, fire in her eyes, before heading off down the street.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Hello, everyone. This is AfanofManyStuffs speaking. I’m here with ApocalypticNuisance today, here to bring you our role-play fic. There are going to be quite a few characters, so I’ll make this fast. I roleplay Claude, Sebastian, and the triplets, who will make their appearance later. ApocalypticNuisance does Mei-Rin and Hannah. The extras we split on an as-needed basis. This will be fairly OOC and AU, with elements of crack and steamy romance. There is also het, as in heterosexuality, and NO SebaCiel! You have been warned.

 

We are always looking for asks and more roleplays! @afanofmanystuffs, @ultimatesebastianmichaelisrp, @claude-trash-faustus are all mine, and @castiels-crowleyroleplay, @snarkylucifer are all ApocalypticNuisance’s Tumblr accounts. Alternatively, I am A fan of Many Stuffs here and on fanfiction.net, if you want to PM me and start something. We thank you kindly for reading!

 

Also, shout-out to Dance4theDead, who had the idea of starting a Claude rp’er club. I’m usually on Cards Against Humanity (Xyzzy version) if anyone wants to chat! LOL XD

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**


	2. Sniffing Instinct

**When Everything (et al) Happens**

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Chapter 2: Sniffing Instinct

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

His mate refused, and ran off. Had he frightened her? Oh, wait. Had he forgotten...? He had. Idiot. Over 1,000 years old, and he forgets to subside his aura. On his first meeting with a human mate, no less. Idiot.

 

He took several steps away from the scene and disappeared down an alley, away from the police cars and ambulances that were just now joining the scene. He took out the piece of paper she had given him, and did what he had been longing to do.

 

He took several good sniffs. Just one was not enough. The scents present were sweet blood, gunpowder, soot, spice, cooking chicken, chopped onion, wood polish, dust, linen, soap, fire, and the fine, delicate scent of a woman's sex. He attributed some of the scents to his mate, and others to where the paper had been. Like in her pocket. All in all, it was a curious mix of scents. One didn’t usually smell... gunpowder...

 

Claude's golden, glasses covered eyes narrowed. He had recently smelled gunpowder this afternoon. He had dismissed it to the background of his background thoughts, as at the time he had been talking with his mate, and then immediately afterward the car had... His eyes narrowed further. Could it be?

 

Before he could get further in his thoughts than that, there was a flurry of commotion from the nearby accident. The emergency responders had pulled the driver free and declared him dead of a bullet to the brain. He did some quick mental calculations. The man had been shot in the back of the head. From the angle, the perpetrator sniper had to be shooting from one of the nearby tall buildings- _exactly the way his mate had gone_. He cussed under his breath and made his way off. He would follow her scent, imprinted in his memory from the first (and second) time they had been in close contact. The fact that he had not given his phone number to Mei-Rin did not escape him. It would do as an excuse.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

 

Mei-Rin dashed off. When she was a good enough distance from the area where all the commotion was, she pulled out her phone and made a phone call.

 

"It's Mei-Rin... Yeah... Listen, I might be coming out of early retirement, I've got something I need to finish, so don't be concerned if someone mysteriously dies on the news...." She hung up after the person on the other end gave a brief response, and then set the basket of goods down on the ground by an alleyway and pushed up her glasses. The redhead wasn't about to go after the person right away- she would wait a bit longer do that so she would know what was going on, although she did keep her eyes on the rooftop where the shot had come from.

 

She squinted and watched a figure, presumably a sniper, grab something from the roof and dash off down the sides and to a nearby car, where he immediately took off. The female frowned. This was what she was afraid of. The man that had been killed in the car was someone she knew all too well, who worked at the same agency as she had when she was an assassin. Having him killed meant that someone from her past was coming back to do some sort of 'clean up,' and she was almost sure she knew exactly who it was.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Claude walked along the sidewalk, across the street, and through a few nooks and crannies at human walking speed, following the scent. He eventually came to an alleyway. At the foot of it was the basket that Mei-Rin had been carrying, still full of bought food from the market. He stopped next to it. He had an impulse. His eye twitched, trying to repel it- it was very improper. A demonic mating instinct. But... he stole a glance at the basket. The fledgling mating bond that had just started to form, although very weak (it would eventually grow to a strength where thoughts and emotions could be instantaneously transmitted between distances so far as separate dimensions), told him she was in no immediate danger.

 

Defeat. He kneeled down, placing his own basket down, gingerly taking her basket in his hands. And sniffing. Long, deep, comforting sniffs. This instinct would persist until he had properly marked her, most likely. Probably. This was his first time meeting a mate, and although some demons had several, others took only one, either forever or at a time. Losing a mate was purported to be torture. At the mere thought, his body seized up and he nearly lost the physical form for a moment. He took more sniffs to calm him down, although the body itself would have been better... What a strange sight he must make, kneeling over a basket and sniffing deeply. He could only hope that Mei-Rin didn’t come back and see him like this. He took another sniff, eyes wide, possessive.

 

Demons have had mates since antiquity; a holdover from the days when they were angels. To put the relationship between demonic mates in a human metaphor, it was like being married. Two demons would stay together, although not filial, until more mates were found. Other mates lived in something of a family unit, although being the mate of one person did not automatically mean they were the mates of others mated to that one person, although they usually all coexist for the sake of moving on with living. For example, all Thompson, Timber, and Canturbury were mated to Hannah, but not to each other. Timber may find a mate in France, but they would not be mated to either Thompson, Canturbury, or Hannah. It was not uncommon to have demons from different caste systems mated- the class system was mainly for torturing sectioning anyway. Mating was primal and uncontrollable; a left over from the days where the original Royal Nobles parted from God. Of those who have withstood the millennia, not many came to Earth anymore; preferring to take sustenance from a higher dimension.

 

It was actually purported that they were attempting to make the dimension higher than this one accessible to all, for more meal choices in case God ever decided to lay waste here. It was only rumors at the moment, however, as the first few to have gone hadn’t been seen again.

 

He recalled a rumor that he had overheard from a fuck buddy the last time he had been home- that they had somehow been redeemed and were now floating white heads, surrounded with white light and eating grapes off a vine.

 

He sniffed harder, his eyes growing wide and glowing slightly as he internally chuckled. More likely, they were have too much fun with advanced technology. Considering it was the 21st century, he had really expected it to be more advanced, with the way it had literally skyrocketed from the horse and carriage to rocket ships.

 

Of course, it also coincided with alien ships crashing into Earth. Not that he would ever say anything, for anonymity was a demon’s best friend. Get a meal, wait fifty years and come again with another face- that was the standard system. Spend the interim however you want, whether it be torturing the souls in Hell until they actually learned their wrongdoings, roaming the Earth causing havoc (Black plague and world wars included), or just standing at the bottom of the ocean (although your sanity level after that may or may not be significantly lower).

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Mei-Rin had completely forgotten about the basket to be honest. She didn’t care anymore, for she had gone back to the Phantomhive manor to prepare herself. She was going to track down her rival at any cost. It didn't take her long to ask Sebastian for a day off before running up to her room. The female changed clothes, pulling on a black skin-tight suit and shoving her glasses onto the stand and pulling her hair up. She grabbed a few weapons she would need and quickly fled the manor at dusk. The night was spent searching for the person she knew she would most likely kill, hoping it wouldn't take too long to do so.

 

Mei-Rin had no idea that Claude was on her tail, or at least trying to keep an eye out for her.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

After Claude temporarily satisfied his irritating sniffing instinct, he took both baskets and called Canturbury to pick them up and deliver them to the Trancy manor. The young lord was out on a visit to France with Hannah at the moment, doing... something that Claude didn’t properly know, but had overheard from Timber, the triplet who accompanied the two on the trip, that it had something to do with sex, prostitution, money, information, and souls.

 

While that would normally sound like a good night, it turned sickening because his contractee was there. At any rate, he was on leave until specifically called for. That hadn’t happened yet, and it had been two weeks. This left him free to pursue his mate across the country. And she did manage to get around. He had waited in spider form on a bird flying until she had left the Phantomhive manor at dusk, and then all over London as she had stopped at near-hidden nooks and crannies in the most irreputable places that the city had to offer, inquiring about someone.

 

He was not concerned, although he had been shocked at the change of outfits. Of course, his sense of acquired decency was stuck in the late 1800's, when women still wore corsets. From what he overheard, hidden in the shadows, she was offering outrageous prices on information, everything from calling in favors to just short of prostitution. _At least she has that much sense_ , he thought to himself. From her shy behavior when pressing up against his body, she was, by and large, unfamiliar with the male physique. Most likely a virgin. An involuntary smile, full of fangs and irony, stretched his mouth.

 

 _They said, after all, it was the best kind of sacrifice to give to a demon._ It was around midnight when Mei-Rin perked up at something the information broker said, and made her way off far more quickly than she had from the others.

 

What was his mate in the business of?

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 

Hello! AfanofManyStuffs here again, this time with Chapter 2. I had a whole lotta fun playing ‘Sniffing Claude,’ than was healthy, tbh. I hope all the headcannon ^ didn’t confuse everyone- it’s all mines!!!

 

Also, a few ways to cement that imagery of Claude possessively hunching over a basket- Gollum over the One Ring, and if you’ve watched ‘Black Butler Cards Against Humanity’ on You Tube, the card I was thinking of was ‘A good sniff- Betchya can’t have just one!’.

 

Lame fanart of it can be found on my deviantART account, afanofmanystuffs.deviantart.com For a direct link: http://orig12.deviantart.net/fd39/f/2016/094/c/2/claude_basket_case_by_afanofmanystuffs-d9xrhtk.png

 

It's really lame, but the rest of my art is not as bad! Personally, I like my sketch of Sebastian the best XD.

 

**{¨§º~º§¨}**

 


End file.
